Queen Elizabeth II has led Britons in remembrance of their war dead in a ceremony attended by thousands of veterans and military personnel.
Crowds of onlookers, many of them elderly, stood quietly in pouring rain at the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall, central London, for the Remembrance Sunday service commemorating the war dead of Britain and the 54-nation Commonwealth.
As Big Ben struck 11 a.m., the queen joined thousands of gathered troops, veterans and civilians in the traditional two minutes of silence, broken by a single artillery blast and the sound of Royal Marine buglers sounding the "Last Post."
The queen, dressed in black, laid a wreath of red poppies on the Cenotaph. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent also placed wreaths at the base of the simple Portland stone monument.
Prince Edward and his wife Sophie watched from a nearby Foreign Office balcony.
Politicians led by Prime Minister Tony Blair and opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith also laid wreaths and were followed by representatives of Commonwealth nations and the armed forces, as a military band played Beethoven's Funeral March.
The Cenotaph, an 81-year-old monument which bears the words "The Glorious Dead," was flanked by members of the armed forces, including detachments from the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
The Bishop of London, the Right Rev. Richard Chartres, led a short prayer service, attended by Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh religious leaders.
Later, 10,000 veterans and war widows marched past the Cenotaph. Many were in wheelchairs or leaned on canes as they passed, most wearing medals and some with regimental berets.
They were followed by delegations from civilian groups vital to the wartime "home front," including the ambulance service, the police service and the Royal Mail.
Security at the Cenotaph event, which comes ahead of Armistice Day Monday, was tight, with onlookers having to pass through metal detectors and submit to searches of their belongings.
AP